How The Hellboy Reboot Is Different From The Guillermo Del Toro Movies, According To Hellboy's Creator

For a long time, Hellboy fans kept hoping that Guillermo del Toro would get the opportunity to make Hellboy III and give the story he told in the previous two movies a proper conclusion. But you can't always get what you want, and last year it was announced that a new Hellboy movie is on the way, but it will be a reboot. David Harbour, who's bringing Hellboy to life this time around, has previously said that unlike Ron Perlman's Hellboy, his version of the character will go "through a lot more struggle, a lot more angst," and Mike Mignola, the man who created Hellboy, notes that while both del Toro's Hellboy movies and director Neil Marshall's Hellboy pull from his source material, the latter is honing in on those horror elements more closely. In Mignola's words:

While del Toro did a more fanciful version of Hellboy, Neil has done a darker, more horror version of Hellboy. The both started with the source material but then they each have led it in very different directions.

Mike Mignola's take on the Hellboy reboot certainly falls in line with that we've learned about it over the last year. While Guillermo del Toro's take on the Hellboy mythology certainly had their scary and unsettling moments, the movies operated within the safer PG-13 confines. This reboot, on the other hand, will be R-rated and not for the more squeamish moviegoers. And again, just because the new Hellboy is veering more into horror than fantasy doesn't mean it's not going to honor the original stories. In fact, continuing in his interview with Deadline, Mignola stated that from what he saw when visiting the Hellboy set in Bulgaria, this reboot looks his creations were ripped straight from the comics, something he didn't feel with the earlier movies. Mignola said:

This is the first time I have been able to say honestly that I was on set and looking at something that looked like it jumped straight out of the comic. I never had that experience on any of the other stuff. There's one scene in this movie where I was like, 'Holy fuck,' that's pretty damn close --- in the costumes and everything else --- to a specific scene in the comics. That was a new experience.

Based off the Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt and The Storm and the Fury comic book story arcs, the Hellboy reboot will see the eponymous protagonist and his allies battling a medieval sorceress who wants to destroy humanity. Along with David Harbour as Hellboy, the main cast includes Milla Jovovich as Nimue the Blood Queen, Ian McShane as Trevor Bruttenholm, Sasha Lane as Alice Monaghan and Daniel Dae Kim as Ben Daimio. Hellboy has a panel at New York Comic-Con this Saturday, so if the predictions prove true, that's when we'll get the first trailer.

Previously scheduled for January 11, 2019, Hellboy has now moved to April 12 of the same year, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates. In the meantime, feel free to look through our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out next year.